


She's a Good Shot

by FridaysAt9



Category: The X-Files
Genre: College, Episode: s01e13 Beyond the Sea, F/M, FBI Academy, Scully as a kid, Teenage Scully, beer pong, family life, good shot, med school
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:54:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24226183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridaysAt9/pseuds/FridaysAt9
Summary: Why is Scully such a good shot? A series of moments in Scully's life that explain or highlight her great aim.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 12
Kudos: 37





	1. Hoop

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I was thinking about how people always say Scully is a good shot. Also how she shot Mulder cleanly through the shoulder even in a tense situation. So this got me thinking, why is she such a good shot? Has she always been that way? Does it come naturally or does she have to work for it? 
> 
> I am posting the first three and I will post the rest in dribs and drabs. As of now, I think there will be eleven chapters. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

When she was little, a small toy basketball hoop found its way to her room. Being one of the younger Scullys ment she was never in short supply of toys, but rarely were they of her own choosing. She had a doll that she loved and a stuffed puppy that she slept with every night, but lately, the basketball hoop had become her obsession. 

When she first found it, Dana sat on the shag carpet in her room with the hoop a few feet in front of her, tossing the small bean bags that came with it, one after the other, until she was a pro and the challenge was gone. 

Never being one to quit, and always being one to seek perfection, she moved the small hoop up against the dresser and scooched back so she rested against her bedroom door, and then she tossed and tossed until she was able to sink those little bean bags every time. 

She started getting creative, moving the hoop around the room, tossing the bean bags standing up, sitting down, laying on her back on her bed. She wouldn’t stop until she was perfect. 

As she got older, she would toss the bean bags from time to time while talking on the phone, or doing homework. She could always get them in. 

She could almost always sink them without looking.


	2. BB

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's a little older and she is learning.

The first time she held a gun was when her brothers weren’t looking. They had been in the backyard of their Navy house shooting old tin cans, pretending to be cops and robbers while Dana sat in a patio chair pretending to read. She had asked them to play, but Bill had said she was too little, even though Charlie was littler. She knew the real reason was because she was a girl. 

She hated when they wrote her off because she wasn’t a boy like them. She loved playing dolls with Melissa and pretending to put on make-up, but lately Melissa seemed more interested in spending time with her friends than her little sister. And besides, the boys got to have adventures and roll in the dirt. They ran around the yard screaming and shouting. It looked like fun, and she never got to be a part of it. 

So when she could, and when they didn’t realize she was doing it, Dana pretended to read her Nancy Drew, and secretly watched them, hoping they would let her join in.

Of course they never did. 

But today they had tired of their game, deciding to go inside for a snack. A snack they hadn’t bothered to offer to their annoying sister. 

Dana peered inside and saw that they had taken their food to the couch and now had their eyes glued to the TV screen. She put down her Nancy Drew, leaving it on the table like a little teepee, and scurried over to where the boys had left their guns. 

She had watched them enough times to know how they worked. Careful not to make any noise that would alert her brothers, she set up the dented cans on the logs, just the way they did. Then she went back over to the BB guns laying on the ground. She had never touched one and was pretty sure her mom would not be happy if she did. 

But she had watched those boys, studied everything they had done, and she knew what she was doing. She picked up the gun Charlie had been using, opened the compartment and reached down to the box of pellets, grabbed a handful and loaded the gun. 

Taking a deep breath, she lifted the gun into place. She remembered the words Bill had told Charlie. Hold it steady. Close one eye. Use the site to make sure you are aiming at your target. She could do this. She understood how it worked. She had seen how her brothers shot, how the gun jumped when they pulled the trigger. She could do this. One more breath and she was ready.

Without hesitation, Dana aimed her gun and pop, hit the first can. Pop, hit the second. She pulled the trigger over and over, going down the line without missing a single can. Six cans in line, six cans hit. 

Her brothers heard the gun, the sound of pellets hitting the cans, knocking them to the ground, and came running and there stood little Dana, gun in hand, with a huge grin on her face. 

After that, they always let her play.


	3. Fair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's 15 and she's finding her voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote the first three chapters in one sitting and I think this one gets the ball moving in the direction I want it to go. I hope you stick with me as I continue to post!
> 
> (Note- Mulder is a character in the tags. I'm getting there, I promise!)

When she was fifteen, a boy in her class asked her to the fair. She didn’t really like him more than an acquaintance, but she wanted to be polite. And she really liked the fair. 

They walked around, eating funnel cake and looking at the giant pumpkins and squash with their prize blue ribbons. They watched a show with a dog doing tricks while the boy’s leg repeatedly brushed up against her own. He talked more than was necessary and she talked probably less than was appropriate. Sometimes he made her laugh, but mostly she wished she were there with pretty much anyone else. There wasn’t anything wrong with him, she just didn’t like him that way. 

Dana couldn’t believe he was still making an effort with her when she felt like she was failing miserably at being his date. He had insisted on buying her cotton candy when he saw her staring at it and he had gently taken her hand in his own as they took a ride on the ferris wheel. She played along, but still had nothing to say and had no desire to make any advances of her own.

As the night wore on and the sun began to go down, he found his heart set on winning her a large stuffed animal to take home to commemorate the evening. His attempts at this feat were painful to watch. Dana knew she could win herself any one of those prizes, but she felt like the role she was playing required her to stand by this boy’s side while he showed his manly abilities. 

They started small with the water gun race, where he had not been the winner. Then they moved on to a game of tossing baseballs into a slanted bucket mounted on the wall. Dana knew it was all about finesse and the amount of bounce the ball would have when it hit the bottom, but the boy did not, and they again, left without a prize. 

Dana trailed him from stand to stand, eating her cotton candy and thinking about what she would do when she got home. Maybe read a book. Put on her favorite pajama pants.

He couldn’t knock down the stack of bottles, which Dana knew required hitting them at exactly the right place with the exact right amount of force, and he didn’t get a ring on a bottle, even after she had casually told him she had heard that throwing the rings like a Frisbee was more effective. 

By the time they got to the stall with balloons on the wall and three darts for a dollar, Dana couldn’t handle another moment as a spectator.

“You know,” she said, speaking louder than she had all evening, but still more quietly than her usual tone, “I’m pretty good at darts. Do you mind if I try this one?”

He thought about it and she could see him weighing his options. 

“If I miss, you can take the next round,” she told him. He paid the man behind the counter and handed her three darts. 

Three popped balloons equaled the jumbo prize. She decided she would go for the green ones, since it was her favorite color. 

She let her first dart fly and it met with a satisfying pop as it embedded itself in the wall. 

“Well look at that,” her date said, with a tone of surprise that only spurred her on.

She let go of her second dart. Green. Dart stuck in the wall. This time her date said nothing. 

She decided to make her last dart a challenge because if she could pull it off, no one would think it had just been luck. She took a breath and set her last dart flying. With a pop she hit the green balloon at the very top of the far left corner, earning herself a jumbo prize. 

Her date just stared at her. She could rub it in his face, chastise him for not letting her play any of the games, brag about her skills, but she chose to do none of those things. 

“I’ll take the purple hippo, please,” she told the man behind the counter. 

He handed Dana her prize, she thanked them and they walked away.

Dana Scully wasn’t always a great date, but she was always a good shot.


	4. Pong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scully is in college and needs a break from her studies. Winning a competition is the best way to get her energy levels back up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter! I wanted to play on Scully's punk phase that we hear about, especially in fics. And in college, what better place is there to show off your great aim than beer pong? 
> 
> The interwebs tell me beer pong began to gain popularity in the 1980s, so for the sake of this story, lets just assume it was being played at University of Maryland at that point. 
> 
> Hope you like this!

Everyone wanted to be her partner, no one wanted to face her. 

It only took a few games before word to spread that Dana was the student to beat in a game of beer pong. 

She was mostly focused on her coursework at University of Maryland, but the rebel inside her, the girl who stole her mother’s cigarettes and snuck out of the house the make-out with boys from her high school, occasionally wanted to let her hair down and forget about all her responsibilities.

She was always good at school, particularly science, but her classes were difficult and required a lot of work and focus. What little free time she had, was spent looking towards the future. She had spent the day in the library, researching physicists, trying to narrow down her interests to come up with a topic for her thesis. She was only a Sophomore, but if she started now, a little bit at a time, the process would be less overwhelming in the end. 

Her thesis was something manageable, something she could control. She was only in her second year but adulthood was looming. She didn’t know who she wanted to be, what she wanted to do for a living, but this thesis? It would be hers. She could do it and it would be great. 

But after a day of classes and research, sitting with her back hunched and her eyes tracing text, her body was humming with unused energy. She was antsy and on edge as she paced the small length of her dorm room. She needed to move. 

Her roommate wasn’t home, but she knew where she was. She had invited her to a party at her friend’s house that morning, which Dana had passed on, telling her she planned on finishing a paper and maybe curling up with her worn copy of Moby Dick before calling it a night. Now she was far too full of pent up energy to settle in and read, so she pulled on her jeans, faded and torn, and a black Ramones T-shirt, grabbed her keys and headed out the door. 

The party was in a dark basement, filled with smoke and the smell of stale beer and who knows what coming from the sticky floor. The first thing she did when she walked in the door was bum a cigarette. The second was pour herself a beer from a keg, then she started a serpentine loop through the party, looking for her roommate, who actually found her first. 

“Dana! You came!” she yelled, coming up to her from behind. 

“Hey, yeah,” Dana said casually. “Had to get out.”

Dana took a drag of her cigarette while thinking how much she hated the Cyndi Lauper song that was shrieking through the speakers. She was happy to be out, but was starting to think this party wasn’t the place. 

“They have beer pong,” her roommate said, pulling her from her thoughts. Dana couldn’t help a small smirk from crawling across her face. 

“Let’s do it,” she said, feeling a rush of adrenaline. This was exactly what she needed, a little high that came from showing off what she could do, from winning a competition. 

Her roommate left her to put her name on the list, omitting Dana’s as they had realized was necessary, and returning to her side. The two passed the time on a grungy couch with girls from their dorm floor and boys from her roommate’s classes, talking and laughing, as their beers seemed to be constantly refilled. 

When their team was called for the next game, Dana stood up causing the world to tilt. She hadn’t realized how much she had drunk. She took a breath, tried to shake it off and walked to the corner of the room where the beer pong table was set up. Her roommate was already there, facing the team they would have to beat— two enormous jocks with about 450 lbs of muscle between them. 

“Oh come on,” the one guy whined, “she’s your partner?”

Dana just smiled, moved her cigarette to her left hand and picked up a ping pong ball with her right. She turned to look at her roommate, then winked at the guys and let the ball soar, right into the cup at the point of their triangle. Being drunk wasn’t going to stop her.

“Shit,” the one mumbled. 

Her roommate wasn’t as accurate with her throws, so they did have to drink a little, but Dana never missed and quickly cleared the jocks’ cups. 

Every new team that approached either felt cocky because they didn’t know who she was and thought because of her size and appearance she would be easy to beat or adversely, knowing who she was, wore some sort of panic face. 

As they played, she never missed a shot and started to challenge herself to hit the cups in particular orders, patterns. They beat team after team until Dana had sobered up and her roommate started to fall asleep, squatting next to her with her head on the table. 

“That’s game,” Dana said, as she sunk the last ball against a couple who looked like they could have been siblings. Her roommate was officially fast asleep. “I think it’s time for us to go.”

She collected her roommate, waved goodbye to the few people she knew and started to make the trek back to their dorm with her half asleep beer pong partner. This was just what she had needed. She felt alive and capable, like no one could stop her. She was ready to sleep off the beer, wake up and get to work.


	5. IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her IV placements are always perfect thanks to her hard work, and maybe something else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We don't get a ton of information about how Scully's relationship with Daniel started, but I think there's no doubt that she admired him. Also, I personally felt a certain level of creepiness in their interaction. Just a tiny bit.
> 
> Anyway, hope you like this one!

“That’s perfect, Dana,” Dr. Waterston said. “A perfectly placed IV.”

Her cheeks had flushed at his complement, making her feel hot and flustered. She had noticed he tended to heap more praise on her than on the other med students, but she brushed it off, figuring she was reading into it. But today when he had complimented her IV placement, he had rested his hand on her shoulder and lingered there a little longer than she had expected. 

“That’s perfect, Dana.”

She could hear his voice in her head, over and over again on a loop, the gravelly sound of it repeatedly bringing butterflies to her stomach. 

She shook her head. What was she doing? When was the last time she had slept? She was sitting next to a sleeping patient, dreaming about her instructor and mentor. Her married instructor and mentor. 

Dana sighed and put her face in her hands. She was the best med student in her rotation, and while she mostly did it for herself, working hard, making sure she excelled, if she was honest with herself, a little bit of it was for him. She looked up to him. She admired him. She wanted him to be proud of her, to be impressed with her. 

She studied everything and practiced every procedure they learned to make sure she knew it perfectly so when the time came to perform, in front of her peers, but more importantly, in front of him, the chances of her getting it wrong were slim to none. 

There was a reason her IV was perfectly placed. She had read everything she could find on how to locate a vein, how not to go through the vein, how to make the patient comfortable and how to make the procedure as painless as possible. She had practiced during class time and then snuck a needle and catheter home with her to practice on whatever she could find, an orange, a banana, on one of the other med students, though after finding additional supplies. By the time it was her turn to insert an IV into an actual patient, it was exactly where it was supposed to be with the fluids flowing. 

But this was how she worked. She learned everything she could about something before trying it for herself. She relied on the science, the physics of things, to guide her. It was an added bonus to have impressed her instructor in the process. 

Dana turned over her left wrist to look at her watch, 12:48 am. She was 18 minutes past the end of her shift. She needed food and sleep. She stood from her chair and stretched out her back, which had locked itself into a hunch in the time she had been sitting with the patient. She closed her eyes and rolled her neck, almost too tired to make it across campus to her room. With no other option, she sighed and turned towards the door. 

“Dr. Waterston!” she gasped, caught off guard by the image of him leaning in the doorway.

“Still here, Dana?” he asked, walking in the room and towards the patient’s bed.

“I was just,” she said, trying to find her words without being flustered by his proximity. She hadn’t until this moment noticed how truly dark the room was. “I wanted to make sure she was ok. She had a rough day and doesn’t have any family. She seems to be doing well at the moment.”

Dr. Waterston stood at the foot of the patient’s bed, looking at her chart, silently nodding. “Everything looks fine,” he said. “I think she is going to be just fine.”

Dana smiled, knowing that all the work she and the hospital staff had put in would be rewarded. 

He turned to look at her with a mix of emotions on his face that made her catch her breath. He looked proud, and sad, and a little but of something else. Their eyes were locked for just a moment, and then it was over. He looked down, placed the chart back at the foot of the bed, and carefully pulled the curtain shut for the patient’s privacy. 

Dana turned to leave the room, but she felt his hand on her arm and stopped in her tracks. Something felt different, charged. And she felt nervous and yet somehow excited as she turned to face him. 

He was so close. She knew it was closer than he should be. Closer than was appropriate, but she made no attempt to move. Her mind raced to all sorts of scenarios that should never happen. 

“You did a great job today Dana,” he told her in a voice barely above a whisper. “Perfect work. I think you have a very promising career in front of you.”

Was he getting closer or was she? His hand was still on her arm and eyes were boring into hers. And his expression… The look on his face made her heart race. 

“Thank you, Dr. Waterston,” she said. She heard her own voice and it sounded like that of a child. Small and scared, but also full of wonder, admiration and something else. Want

Before she knew what was happening, he was leaning even closer, bending his head down towards her own. She was frozen in place, afraid to move. She didn’t want to break this spell, but she also didn’t trust herself not to pull his face towards her own, doing something that could get her in trouble, and something that could ruin his marriage. 

His lips found her cheek, where he pressed a feather soft kiss against her hot flesh, before he stepped back to gaze again into her eyes. 

“Please,” he said, taking her hand and squeezing it. “Call me Daniel.”


	6. Academy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's small, and she may never be the fastest, but Sully's strengths are what will make her a great FBI agent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can feel it! Mulder will turn up soon (just not in this chapter). Here's a little look at Scully in the academy. I imagine it would be hard to be small in the academy up against bigger and stronger people (and I have a friend who is even smaller than Scully and went through it), but you know Scully would succeed, and maybe kick some ass too.

She couldn’t keep up. No matter how fast she ran, how hard she pushed herself, she was never able to get herself to the front of the group. She was by no means at the back, usually falling solidly in the first half, but she wasn’t used to not being the best. 

The FBI had recruited her right at a time in her life when she desperately needed a change of pace. She had allowed her relationship with Daniel to get out of hand and people were going to get hurt. It didn’t align with her conscience, her faith, or the image of the person she saw herself being. 

Sometimes she had thought about how easy it would have been to be selfish, not to care about his wife, his family, and stay in his bed, wrapped in his arms forever on end, but that little voice in her head couldn’t be silenced. What she was doing was wrong. He wasn’t fully hers and even if there was a point where he belonged to only her, she wasn’t sure how she would feel knowing that she won him from someone else, leaving disaster in their wake. 

So although it had been a long time since she imagined herself as anything other than a doctor, when the FBI came calling, she surprised herself by the level of consideration she gave it. 

She approached the decision like every other aspect of her life, with precision and copious amounts of research. What did FBI agents do? What did it require? Was she willing to relocate? And lastly, what would the physical requirements be?

She wasn’t blind to the fact that she was small. She had taken up running to stay fit and could hold her own in most athletic activities, but at just over five feet, she had to wonder if her stature would be a hindrance to a career in law enforcement. 

In the end, Dana saw the FBI as her greatest challenge to date. If she could do this, she could do anything. If she was able to make it through the academy, as a young 5’3” woman, she knew she could distinguish herself with the bureau, using her intelligence and medical knowledge as a way to excel. 

She could make a difference. 

She was in.

But now, nearly a month into her time at the academy, she was reaching a breaking point. She was worn down and both mentally and physically exhausted. Four men were running ahead of her and no matter how hard she pushed, she couldn’t close the gap. They looked like they were barely putting forth any effort while she was giving every ounce of energy she had left. She was the only woman in the front of the pack, but that still wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted to win. 

When they got to the finish, Dana coming in fifth, she collapsed on the ground, trying to catch her breath while trying not to let her frustration come out in the form of tears. 

“Nice job, Scully,” her instructor said as he passed, but she knew she could have done better.

~~~~

“Missy, I just don’t know if I am cut out for this,” Dana said into the phone in the hall of the dormitory. “I don’t think I am good enough.”

“Oh, Dana,” Melissa’s soothing voice came over the phone. “You know that’s not true. How are you doing in your classes?”

“Fine.”

“Just fine?”

Dana signed. “I’m at the top of the class.”

Melissa didn’t say anything, letting her little sister sit in silence.

“Missy,” she whined. 

“You’re smart, Dana. You can do this.”

“But I’m not fast enough,” Dana said. “Or strong enough. These men… They are just enormous and I feel like a little kid trying to keep up. It’s like living with Bill all over again, following him around, trying to be taken seriously.”

“Dana, I think you need to trust yourself,” Melissa said.

“Trust isn’t going to get me up that god damned rope any faster.”

Melissa laughed. “You can’t be anyone but yourself,” she said. “You aren’t one of those enormous men. You are Dana Katherine Scully. You are the person who scored 100 on every test that ever came across her desk.”

“Not every one,” Dana interrupted. 

“Close enough,” Melissa said with a laugh. “You are tough, resilient and you’ve never taken crap from anyone. You may never be the fastest or strongest person in the FBI, but do you think that will stop you from doing a good job?”

Dana knew the answer was no. She wouldn’t allow herself to be bad at her job. 

“Dana,” her sister continued, “you have to embrace your strengths. I am sure you will pass any physical test they throw at you, but your strengths, your intelligence, your ambition, your compassion, those are the things that will make you an amazing FBI agent. There’s only one Dana Scully. Don’t ever forget that.”

~~~~

The next day was their first day at the shooting range and while every muscle in Dana’s body screamed in protest doing the simplest tasks like walking or brushing her teeth, she was full of excitement and anticipation. 

Embrace your strengths. 

The instructors set everyone up in their individual stalls and gave them endless amounts of instructions— what to do, what not to do, how they would be assessed— before issuing them their weapons, safety goggles and headphones. 

Dana knew this is where she could set herself apart. Her height, gender, age, and appearance didn’t matter when it came to having good aim. She knew she could outshoot everyone in this range. A small smile crept across her lips before she made an effort to keep it in check. She didn’t want to be cocky, just confident. 

She waited to start, watching the targets down the line amid the cacophony of gunfire. The recruits weren’t bad, but they weren’t perfect either. 

Dana picked up her weapon and imagined herself in her parents’ back yard staring at a row of tin cans. She could do this. She pulled the trigger. 

She emptied her clip. 

Every shot, dead center. 

She felt people watching her, but she ignored them. They all had strengths, and this was one of hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're curious, I looked up info about the FBI academy and it's amazing. Here's a link:
> 
> https://www.fbi.gov/services/training-academy/new-agent-training
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I would love feedback :)


	7. Beyond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scully loses her father, but finds her inner voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to erosanderis and admiralty for the beta help on this chapter. This one threw me a little bit, but I think it is better thanks to their feedback. Hope you like!
> 
> Oh, italicized text is from the show and doesn't belong to me. No lawsuits please!

_ “Well, I came here to tell you that if he dies because of what you've done, four days from now, no one will be able to stop me from being the one that will throw the switch and gas you out of this life for good, you son of a bitch!”  _

It had all been a set up. She had opened herself to the possibility that Luther Lee Boggs could be some sort of psychic, able to see the future of the crimes an abductor was about to commit. For a moment she believed that he could channel the dead, that she could maybe find out her father’s dying words that she hadn’t been able to hear. 

But it was all a load of bullshit. He’d nearly gotten them killed and he sure as hell couldn't communicate with her father. 

She had been in the FBI for nearly three years and had never fully earned the praise she’d desired from her father. Now that he was gone, she had lost her chance. For a moment, she had believed that this convicted murderer might give her the possibility to get what she desperately needed. 

Her father had been so proud to have a doctor in the family. He was a man of few words, but he told everyone he could, in his own way, about his talented daughter, Dr. Dana Scully. So when she made the decision to join the academy and the FBI, he had been confused and hurt. He made very little effort to hide his disapproval and managed to speak to her even less than usual. Their conversations remained on the surface, carefully dodging any topic that would lead to her career. 

He didn’t know the full story of her past in medical school. She had never told him about Daniel because she knew he would be disappointed in her. And while he wasn’t the whole reason she had chosen to change her profession, it seemed impossible to explain her desire to set herself on a new path without including that piece of her puzzle. 

Her choice to become an FBI agent became, for him, proof that he didn’t understand his daughter as fully as he had believed. And there was the basis of the rift. She had given up medicine, something he had prized, and moved on to something he couldn’t comprehend. 

She loved her job and she did it for herself, but also largely to earn her father’s approval. And now Mulder’s as well. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she could feel her old habits rising to the surface. She wanted Mulder to be proud of her, much in the way she had with Daniel. Or with Jack.

After following the leads Boggs had given them, she had said to Mulder,  _ “I thought that you'd be pleased that I opened myself to extreme possibilities.” _

But Mulder had seen right through her. He called her Dana and sat so close to her that shivers had gone up her spine. He didn’t want her to believe to be like him. He wanted her to be able to believe for herself, to set her own path based on her instincts. But he was also there to protect her from things that weren’t the truth. 

Now he was in a hospital bed, with a hole in his leg and oxygen in his nose. She wouldn’t let him die because of a lying murderer. She wouldn’t.

But Boggs didn’t back down. Instead of his face, she saw Mulder’s. He replayed a moment from her own past. He talked about his last walk to the gas chamber. She fought against it, but he made her feel something she didn’t want to feel. 

_ “I don’t believe you,” _ she told him, when in truth, she didn’t truly believe herself. 

Boggs knew she was lying.  _ “You go ahead and play it like you need to but I know you believe me.” _

~~~~

How the tables have turned. She can’t believe she is sitting with Mulder suggesting that maybe there is a possibility that Boggs has a psychic connection to this case, and Mulder is in the role of the sceptic. 

How did she get here? Was it her emotional state? Was she willing to believe Boggs because she so desperately wanted to hear from her father? Whatever the reason, she could barely recognize herself as she entered the jail cell and lied that Boggs got his deal. 

As he gave her the information she needed, she was comforted by the fact that he believed her. If he believed she had gotten the deal it was proof that none of his abilities were real. He wasn’t in contact with her father. 

As she packed up, she wasn’t able to let it rest.  _ “Luther, if you really were psychic…” _

_ “I would have known you lied. That there never was a deal. I know you tried.” _

~~~~

As she led the team into the factory where Boggs had told them they would find their suspect, Scully’s emotions were nearly completely shot. She felt like part of her was missing without Mulder by her side. She was afraid Boggs had been stringing them along and they wouldn’t find anything, or worse would walk right into a trap. She missed her dad. 

But when they came to Henry, with an ax in his hand, arm in the air, everything came into hyper focus. All of Scully’s thoughts cleared and she was ready for whatever needed to happen. Her nerves were on fire and her body worked on instinct, ready to run, jump, pounce. Shoot. 

_ “Federal agents, we're armed! Drop your weapon.” _

Henry moved to put down his weapon, but Scully was too keyed up to feel the slightest bit of relief. She was still on edge, assessing everything in the room. Ready.

Henry raised the weapon again, poised to throw it at the agents, but Scully was mentally ten steps ahead of him and shot without a moment's hesitation. She’d never shot anyone before, but she didn’t even have to think. This is what she had trained for. She was ready to protect herself and the agents who were with her. 

She aimed for his side, not wanting to kill him so they were able to take him in, and hit her mark right where intended. She succeeded at getting him to drop his weapon, but he was still able to run, forcing them to give chase. 

They followed until Scully saw the devil and froze, remembering Boggs’ words. It was then that she realized it was not about the truth, the science or the facts. It was about her inner voice, her instinct and her gut. She didn’t know if Boggs had some supernatural ability, but something inside of her saw that devil on the wall and screamed not to follow. 

Henry stopped when he heard a creak and made eye contact with Scully before falling to his death. 

~~~~ 

_ “I was considering Boggs. If he knew that I was your partner, he could have found out everything he knew about me. About my father…” _

Boggs saved her life, but she had made a decision. She didn’t need to hear what he had to say about her father. He had been right about the devil but a small part of her still held onto the doubt that he had been able to see into the future.

Mulder looked at her.  _ “Dana. After all you've seen, after all the evidence, why can't you believe?” _

_ “I'm afraid,”  _ she admitted.  _ “I'm afraid to believe.” _

_ “You couldn't face that fear?” _ Mulder asked.  _ “Even if it meant never knowing what your father wanted to tell you?” _

Her gut had told her to trust Boggs, but that same nagging voice told her he couldn’t really communicate with her father.

She chose to trust it. 

_ “But I do know,” _ she said.

_ “How?” _

_ “He was my father.” _


End file.
